Who Gives This Woman?
by Acepilot6
Summary: No.45 in the Road series, part of Tommy & Lil's wedding night. Phil ponders on purpose, relationships, changes and the wonder of friends. A bit of fluff. Please read and review.


**Who Gives This Woman?  
**Acepilot

AN - No.45 in the Road series. We hadn't had a good wedding night fic in ages, and I decided that I might as well continue that story, plugging the holes in the plot. This takes place more-or-less directly after _Road Trip_ (fic no.1, for those keeping track). It's just shy of five years since I first put finger-to-keyboard and produced that very first story in this series, and the idea that I've now written the best part of fifty of them (plus _Deciduous_, pretty much ten one-shots unto themselves) is pretty dizzying for me. Hopefully these stories can still elicit a smile.

Dedication - to those who've been here since the beginning. Thank you for your patience.

Disclaimer - the characters contained within are the property of KlaskyCsupo. The plot is mine.

- - - -

We arrive in the nearly abandoned carpark to the hotel, and I crane my neck to look up at the top floors. "They found a minister who does house calls at midnight?"

Kimi shrugs. "Must have done."

We climb out of the car. The first thing I see is none other than Chuckie Finster leaning against his battered old number not too far away. "Hey, guys. Good to see you made it without killing each other."

I can't resist the temptation to grin knowingly. It's not like I get to do it very often and I savour every opportunity I get.

Kimi just walks up to her brother and slaps him on the arm. "Don't be mean, Chuckie." But then she hugs him. "It's good to see you, big brother."

"Yeah, it's been a bit too long, if you ask me," he says. "I hear you graduated very well indeed."

"Not as well as Chuckie the wonder child," she grins mockingly, "but well enough."

I decide that now is as good a time as any to step in and say my salutations. "Hey, Chuckie. How've you been?"

He nods. "Pretty well. Long drive, though."

"Yeah, I'm surprised you beat us here," I tell him.

He shrugs. "Maybe I went a little fast."

"Chuckie Finster, speeding on the highway?" I ask, sounding disbelieving. Kimi is backing me up with a shocked stare.

"Hey, I'm the best man at this wedding. You think I wanted to be late?"

I chuckle, though I do feel a slight pang at his words. Tommy is the groom, Lil is the bride, Chuckie is the best man, and Kimi will be the maid of honor.

So what, exactly, am I meant to do?

"Are they even here yet?" I ask, looking around.

"Nope," Chuckie tells me. "Considering they had a head start on all of us, they sure are taking their sweet time over it."

I nod toward the hotel. "Reckon that place has somewhere that we can get a cup of coffee?"

"I'd say so," Kimi says, detatching herself from Chuckie and walking in my direction.

We hadn't exactly made any firm plans as to telling the rest of the gang, but I think – by silent agreement – we're going to tell our siblings first. I know I want to talk to Lil about it. But I'm not sure how she's going to break the news to Chuckie.

Thankfully, grabbing and making out with me isn't it. Yet.

"So, Chuckie," I ask, walking into the hotel foyer and looking around for a café, "how's university going?"

"Good," he says, leading us into one and back toward a booth from which we can see the foyer, so we'll be able to know when Tommy and Lil arrive. "I've got all my assignments done, it's going well."

Chuckie and I get a coffee while Kimi orders tea. I realize that I'm going to have to get used to having tea in my apartment.

Gee, actually, we haven't even discussed if we're going to live together yet. That was just something I guess I wasn't thinking about. I don't see why we wouldn't though – I mean, we're going to the same university, we're engaged…but maybe I shouldn't take this sort of thing for granted. Have I learned absolutely nothing?

"Do you always have so much sugar in coffee?" Chuckie cuts into my thoughts, catching me as I pour a third sachet of sugar into my cup.

"Only when I'm drinking it out. At home I just have one." I take a sip and note that it is, perhaps, a little sweet. "Why?"

"Oh, nothing. Just reminded me of something Angelica did the other day –"

"Angelica?" I cut him off.

"The other day?" Kimi picks up.

"Yeah," he says. "We go out for coffee and dinner and stuff all the time. Anyway, we were at this diner having breakfast, and –"

This is all coming just a little bit fast for me. "Hang on, hang on. You and Angelica have coffee, dinner and _breakfast_?! On a regular basis?"

He shrugs. "Well…yeah. We go to the same school, you know."

"So you're…friends, now?"

"What? We aren't allowed to be?"

I exchange a very brief glance with Kimi. "No, no. It's not that. It's just…well, surprising, really, that you and she have become so…close."

He shrugs. "Well…we just started seeing each other because we felt lonely, but –"

"Seeing each other?" Kimi stops him.

He realizes the confusion. "As friends," he assures her.

Now, personally, I think this sounds a bit suspicious, but Chuckie is saved whatever questions I was going to grill him with when the guests of honor suddenly burst into the lobby of the hotel.

Tommy looks indescribably happier than he did this afternoon – his arm is wrapped around Lil's shoulders and if I didn't know better I'd have sworn they'd been _skipping_ when they entered.

I guess this is what being in love does to you.

"Hey, over here," Chuckie announces to the delirious couple, who turn to see us lounging in the café. If anything, their smiles simply broaden (I hadn't thought that would be possible) and they head in our direction.

"Hey, guys," Tommy says, sliding into a seat opposite us. "Great to see that you all made it."

"Well, we could hardly miss it," Kimi says. "Not every day your two best friends get married. Or that I get to be a maid of honor."

Lil smiles deliriously. "I would never have even thought of having anyone else," she assures her best friend.

And suddenly, I can't wait to tell her.

---

"Shouldn't your maid of honour really be doing this?" I ask, cringing at the sight of Lil's hair, which I have attempted to fancy up ever so slightly – at her request. It's not that bad, but I kind of have this thing against appreciating my own skills in doing girl's hair.

It's a guy thing, you understand.

"Yeah, maybe, but she really wanted to talk to Chuckie about something," Lil says. "And I really wanted to talk to you."

I raise an eyebrow. "About what?"

"Two things," she says. "First, about the ceremony."

Ah. Here it comes.

"Look…this is probably going to sound really silly," she begins, and I am somewhat startled. This was definitely not how I anticipated this discussion beginning.

"…okay…" I decide to roll with the punches and see what comes.

"When Tommy and I decided to elope, we agreed that the people who mean the most to us had to be there," she tells me. "So, you, Chuckie, Kimi. And Dil, but of course, he couldn't come."

I nod. "Alright."

"Tommy wanted to have you and Chuckie as co-best-men," she tells me, "but I had to ask him not to."

Okay, now I'm somewhere between taken aback and kind of offended. "Oh? Why?"

She turns around to look at me. "Phil…you've stuck by me through a lot, you know."

"You've done the same for me," I remind her.

"Yeah, but…" she sighs. "You're the most important person to me in the world," she says, "other than Tommy of course, though that's somewhat different."

I chuckle quietly at that.

"Anyway…I want you to be the one to give me away."

Alright. _That _I wasn't expecting.

"I mean, I know it must be really disappointing for you not to be one of Tommy's best men," she says, very rapidly, as if trying to jump in ahead of me being disappointed. "But…well, this would mean so much to me and –"

"I'd love to," I cut her off. "I would be truly honoured."

She smiles up at me. "You're a great brother, Phil."

"Thanks, Lil."

And then we go back to her hair as if nothing had ever happened.

"Where did you learn to braid hair, anyway?" she asks.

I shrug. "I really don't know."

That's a bald faced lie. I know perfectly well. I just don't want to admit it.

It was one night, before we got together. She'd come over to hang out with me while Tommy and Lil were on a date. We were watching some really atrocious movies – I have a feeling they might have been Bollywood or something – and I was begging her to let me turn it over so I could catch the Flames game on a late telecast. She let me, on the tradeoff that she got to give me a makeover.

She swears she didn't take any pictures, but I didn't get this far by believing everything I hear.

"Was that the other thing you wanted to talk about?" I ask.

She shakes her head. "No. Actually, I wanted to talk about your love life."

And I start looking for the exits. "Love life? Mine? Sorry, but isn't tonight meant to be about your love life?"  
She grins at me in the mirror. "Very funny. Seriously, Phil, I really think it's time you start thinking about...I dunno...getting back in the game."

"Getting back in the...game."

You see, it's at this kind of time that I'm torn between telling her what happened to me tonight, or simply laughing my butt off.

"Yeah, Phil. It's been a year since the two of you broke up. And as much as I love Kimi - as much as I wanted it to work out between the two of you - I think it's time you put it behind you and found a nice girl to try again with."

Oh, it's tempting. It's oh-so-tempting. But no. My conscience gets the better of me in the end. "I proposed tonight."

Lil's eyes go as wide as dinner plates. "You _what_!?"

"I proposed, to Kimi," I reiterate.

"No way! What did she say!? Why did you do it? How...what..." she finally trails off, looking at me in the mirror with a look of utter disbelief on her face.

The reaction didn't disappoint me in the least. And neither, I think, will the next one. "She said yes."

Sure enough, Lil bursts into a squeal - an extremely against-type girly squeal - and leaps out of her chair to hug me. "Oh, Phil, that's wonderful! I can't believe it, both of us getting engaged in the one night, it's just so amazing. This is cool! Kimi's going to be my sister-in-law! How -"

"Breathe, Lil, I don't want to have to tell Tommy you suffocated on your own adjectives," I cut her off.

She manages to calm down a little. "Is this what she's off talking to Chuckie about?"

I shrug. "I dunno. I guess. I kind of hope so. It'd be one less thing for me to worry about."

Lil suddenly swings from ecstatic to concerned in a heartbeat. "What's wrong now, Phil?"

I sigh and slump down in the chair she just vacated. "I dunno. I'm happy - so happy, but..." I feel beads of sweat start to gather on my forehead. "I'm _engaged_, Lil. I've never actually had a serious relationship in my life, and suddenly I'm engaged to be _married_. Lil, I'm one step away from being someone's husband, but I have absolutely zero relationship skills."

Lil laughs aloud. "Phil, no-one has relationship skills when they get married. Or at least, not enough of them. The only way you get relationship skills is if you stick at it. And that means a long-term thing. A lot of hard work."

"You make it sound so appealing," I tell her, dryly.

"No-one ever said it was easy," she reminds me. "I can't believe it. I just _can't_ believe it."

"I could say the same thing about you, y'know," I tell her. "I knew he was going to propose, but this – " I wave a hand, indicating our surroundings, the hotel, her hair, _everything_ – "this is incredible. You certainly don't do things by halves, do you?"

"When have we ever?" she grins.

I'll concede the point.

- - - -

For something thrown together very much at the last minute, the wedding is also, somewhat surprisingly, not done by halves. I peek into the reception room – amazed that this hotel doesn't seem to mind we're using it at 11pm on a few hours notice – and see Tommy fidgeting nervously while Chuckie, for once the calm one, tries (in vain) to soothe him. The minister looks worried that Tommy is going to pass out but is otherwise unconcerned. As there are no guests to impress, Kimi has forgone walking down the aisle ahead of us and is instead waiting opposite the boys.

She captures my gaze and I find myself unabashedly staring at her. So much has changed in a year – she looks different, holds herself a little differently – but some things never change. She's still the same sharp-witted girl I fell in love with and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Then she catches me staring and rolls her eyes. I blush but pull away to turn to face my sister, waiting in the foyer.

"Looks like they're set for us in there. You ready?"

She nods. "To spend the rest of my life with the man I love? You better believe I'm ready."

The rest of my life. With Kimi.

Put that way, maybe I do feel ready. Lil's right: it's not so much that I have no relationship skills, it's that I don't have them yet. I can learn. For her, I'll spend the rest of my life working it out.

She's worth it.

And she's mine again.

We walk down the aisle without accompaniment of music, and I feel a little spark of pride, honoured that Lil wanted me to perform this very traditional duty for her. I try desperately not to trip over. When we get to the end, to where our future spouses await – hers immediately, mine a bit further off in the future, I guess – she gives me a hug.

"Thank you, Phil."

"It was an honour. Be happy."

I kiss her on the forehead and turn to face Kimi. I desperately want to kiss her, too, but decide that would be slightly thunder-stealing, and opt instead for standing next to her to watch. She rests her head on my shoulder and I feel a rush of warmth. Surrounded by my best friends, my fiancé, at this occasion, I can't think of anything else I'd rather do.

The minister clears his throat. "Are we ready?"

- - - -

thank you for reading. please review.


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